By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
January 9, 2008

Bumblebees, pink panthers, ladybugs and mice typically spend the winter huddled in the warmth of a cave somewhere. But on Saturday they could be found slicing down the slopes of Timberline in the first high school ski race of the season.

The HRV girls varsity II team won its event, while the varsity girls placed second and the varsity boys third at the Christine Cato Memorial Race Saturday morning.

“I was very impressed with our overall performance as a team,” Eagles coach Peter Nance said. “Our boys team made a huge statement at the race.”

The race is a chance for area skiers to have a little fun before official competition begins next weekend, and the Eagles made the most of it. Many of the HRV skiers dressed up like animals, including Toby Carratt as a speedy bumble bee, Tyler Sassarra as the Pink Panther, and Katherine Rouse as a mouse.

Rouse’s first place finish paced the Varsity II team, which topped its nearest competition by eight seconds. The Eagles also got a sixth place finish from Alex Ostler, ninth from Karrie Hoag, Sierra Bentz, 10th from Sierra Bent, Jannicke Sletmoe 11th and Jill Goatcher 14th.

The HRV girls varsity team finished in second, just .36 of a second behind Oregon Episcopal School.

The Eagle girls were led by Carratt’s fifth-place finish, Ashley Kastner in eighth, Morgan Nance in 13th, Molly McColloch in 22nd and Whitney Fox in 26th place.

The Eagle boys finished in third, less than two seconds back of second-place Jesuit and just under seven seconds off the pace set by first-place Sandy.

The Eagles fot a fourth-place finish from Colton Swearingen to lead the way and had Sam Mears in 13th and Taylor Bentz 33rd.

The Eagle girls are coming off a 2007 season that saw them finish fourth in state while the boys team finished third in league last year.

Nance has placed the emphasis for this season on ensuring a good combined team performance, and thinks he has the roster to ensure that happens.

“We’re really looking forward to a much more balanced team this year,” he said.

Nance fully expects both the boys and girls teams to be at the state meet this year – which will be held at Mt. Hood Meadows in March, but isn’t expecting that they’ll do it on the coattails of a few individuals.

“We are looking past the individual efforts and focusing on our efforts as a team,” he said.

The Eagles got a strong start to that effort at the Cato race, which is held every year in the memory of Christine Cato, a ski racer who died in 1989 in an accident at Timberline.

The strong finishes by all of his teams gives Nance hope that the new philosophy is already taking root.

“Our focus for this year is team, team, team,” he said.

The Eagles will have their first league race of the season this Saturday in a slalom race on the Cascade run at Ski Bowl.

Race time is scheduled for 10 a.m.